Arts Advocacy 2018
Tennesseans for the Arts (TFTA) presented a robust and informative meeting on Wednesday, March 7 to over 200 arts advocates from across the state. The event was held at the Nashville Public Library, who incidentally received the 2017 Library of the Year Award—making them the best library in the entire country!
The meeting kicked off by welcoming Senator Becky Duncan Massey as the new chair of the Tennessee Legislature Arts Caucus. Senator Massey said that although she considers herself left-brained, she is a lifetime arts advocate who appreciates how the arts can improve all our lives. Senator Massey shared that her daughter, a dancer, told her not to lecture this artistic audience but to engage them. She then asked us to think about and share with our neighbor our theme song. Her song, she told us, is “Do Something” by Matthew West.
After a briefing on Americans for the Arts from ArtsBuild’s Rodney Van Valkenburg and a presentation on the Arts and Economic Prosperity 5 report by TN Arts Executive Director Anne Pope, the crowd was treated to a demonstration on communication and storytelling by Unscripted.
Unscripted is a new organization in Nashville who focuses on bringing improv to more of the community, using improv as a method beyond performance and learning more about the impact of practicing improv. The team demonstrated how to listen in order to help us be better advocators. The performance was enlightening, funny, engaging and gave us several great takeaways.
TN Arts would like to thank TFTA board and members for hosting a successful day and for their continued support and dedication to the arts in Tennessee.
